Tomas Handel on the Way Out, Lokomotiv Bids 500,000 Euros

The Red Star matchday list has come out five times this summer, and five times it has been missing one name: Tomas Handel. Not as a substitute waiting for the final twenty minutes, but off it entirely. The Portuguese midfielder, brought in a year ago as one of the club’s most expensive signings, has not even made Dejan Stankovic’s matchday protocol.

He has been training in a separate group alongside Brazilian Rodrigao and Muhamed Badja, players the club has made clear it wants to move on from. One of that trio is already gone: Daglas Ovusu left for Hapoel Tel Aviv two days ago.

A call from Moscow and a figure of 500,000 euros

A concrete offer for Handel has now arrived. Lokomotiv Moscow is ready to pay Red Star 500,000 euros for a loan through the end of the season, with a buyout option built into the deal that would kick in next June. Polish journalist Przemek Siemieniako, who has covered Serbian football for years, first reported the story on his account on X on August 7. The details are still being worked out, and neither club has officially confirmed the move.

For Red Star, the math is simple. A loan takes one of the club’s more expensive salaries off the books until June 1 next year, brings half a million euros into the till, and still leaves the door open to sell the full contract within eleven months. For the player, it is a way out of a situation where his career is being measured in training sessions.

What happened in a year at the Marakana

The numbers from his first season are these: 28 matches across all competitions and one goal, scored against Buducnost Dobanovci in the Serbian Cup. He got minutes in the fall under Vladan Milojevic, played against Lille, and featured in a handful more matches toward the end of last season. Once Stankovic arrived, he fell out of contention and never worked his way back in.

What the club expected, a reliable defensive midfielder who adds bite to the middle of the pitch, never materialized. Red Star still has only Krunic as a proven option for that role, so losing another midfielder from the squad is a question that needs an answer before the transfer window closes.

How much did Red Star pay, and how much is coming back?

The figures here vary by source. Sportklub puts the fee Red Star paid at 3.1 million euros, while MaxBet Sport writes about roughly four million. Either way, half a million euros for the loan is less than a sixth, or an eighth, of what was spent last summer. That is the price a club pays when a signing never finds its rhythm and the contract still has time left to run.

There is also a scenario rarely mentioned when a deal like this is announced. If Lokomotiv does not activate the buyout in June, Handel comes back to Belgrade with a contract, a season further along, and the same question still unresolved. A loan without a mandatory buyout postpones the decision rather than making it.

The Portuguese chapter

Before Belgrade, he spent six seasons at Vitoria Guimaraes, where he racked up 125 appearances and 11 goals. A former Portugal youth international, he was a well known name there, and in recent days a return to Guimaraes has come up as an option, with Rio Ave also inquiring about his terms. The Russian offer is, for now, the only one with a concrete figure attached.

Red Star hosts Novi Pazar in round four of the Superliga, then faces Hapoel Beer Sheva in the second leg right after. If the Moscow deal closes before that match, the red and white squad list for Europe will be one name shorter, even though it was not going to feature him anyway. In my view, a loan without a mandatory buyout is a half measure, and Red Star should not have left this kind of deal open until next summer.